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Revanchism
Revanchism Let's start with a definition, straight out of the Merriam-Webster (14th Ed) Revanchism (French: Revanchisme, from revanche, "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. Sound familiar? It should. It's been the driving force of the history of the Sixth World so far. When the Elves took Ireland and turned it into Tír na nÓg , they claimed they were just reclaiming what was theirs, when Ghostwalker declared all of Denver to be his lair it was based on a claim that he had always laired there. Hell, the very thing that announced the return of magic , the Great Ghost Dance itself was a massive act of Revanchism, to reclaim those lands taken from the Native Nations a couple of centuries previous. Given how many times the Red River Valley has changed hands or almost changed hands, it would be weird if revanchism wasn't a major factor in a lot of the thinking around here. *The Oceti Sakowin was founded when the Sioux and their allies started taking back lost territory, a process that has them twice march to warThird Ghost Dance Warto reclaim their traditional lands, once during The Awakening and again in 2064 . And they never forget, and certainly never let people along the border forget, that there still remains a fair bit of Lakota and Anishinaabe traditional lands left east of the Zone, lands they still believe to be theirs by right and that they will not rest until are back in what they consider to be the right hands, maining a military presense and backing movements of sympathizers like the Friends to press their claim. *On the UCAS side, the memory of loss is more recent but also much fresher in the mind. Most people can remember at least one, if not both, of the times that the Oceti Sakowin has expanded its borders at, so they perceive, their expense. Given how much of Fargo's population growth has been from Anglo refugees given the boot from the Oceti Sakowin, a lot of those wounds are still pretty open. A lot of the appeal of the New Revolution, and its local branch the North Star , was in the possibility of reclaiming those lands that they had been kicked off of, generally either within their own lifetime or that of their parents and just because that attempt failed, doesn't mean the desire has died. Just get to drinking in a UCAS army bar around here and you'll find that out pretty quick. *Generally speaking, the overseas immigrant communities in Fargo have proven fairly immune as this is exactly the kind of nationalist bulldrek they or their parents or grandparents were running from in the first place. There is a bit of an exception in the form of the Amazonian refugees, fresh from the wartorn Amazon , who still send money and sometimes actual weapons back home to resistance groups, hoping to reclaim the lands so recently won from them by Aztlan . As Shadowrunners, of course, this kind of stuff is our bread and butter. Whenever someone has taken something, you can be sure that whoever they took it from will be willing to shell out hard nuyen for help in taking it back. We may say 'Nothing personal, just business' a lot, but a lot of the time, with deeply held allegiences, beliefs and grievences, the personal is absolutely business. Return to: Culture Category:Culture